USPS mail service in Ypsilanti blasted by hundreds at town meeting

Ryan Roosa, 31, of Ypsilanti Township, tells U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, right, and Ypsilanti Township Supervisor Brenda Stumbo at a town meeting Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018 in the township — that picture books delivered by mail carriers to his young children are “always bent or even broken in half.”(Photo: Bill Laitner, Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo

The U.S. mail must go through — and when it doesn’t, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell said she wants to know why.

After her office received hundreds of complaints over the last year about the Ypsilanti post office — and what Dingell said were unsatisfactory responses from U.S. Postal Service officials — the congresswoman said she was moved to call a town meeting Thursday night in Ypsilanti.

More than 300 unhappy residents attended, complaining of haphazard deliveries that arrived days late, threatening their health and family finances when carriers failed to deliver prescription drugs and pension checks.

As well, many said their mailboxes have been damaged or destroyed by carriers’ trucks, that telephone complaint lines were never answered and that postal managers were rude when they visited the post office in person.

“I’ve lived in all but 13 states — this is the worst post office I’ve ever had,” said Cole Chirio, 51, of Superior Township to applause from the crowd.

Her disabled mother’s Social Security checks had been delayed, “and when we try to complain, the managers refuse to take it,” Chirio said.

Dingell mostly listened, reading glasses perched on the end of her nose, while steps away sat a bevy of Postal Service managers from Ypsilanti’s troubled office as well as from their district headquarters in Detroit.

When the Ypsilanti postmaster offered the crowd the same telephone complaint line that people said invariably had its voice mail full, the crowd booed and Dingell interrupted.

“Telling them to call the same number that hasn’t worked … isn’t the answer. They need a better way to reach you,” she said.

“My number is 313-226-8607. We’re going to be delivering your mail each and every day, and we’re going to take the steps to make that happen,” Thompson said.

At first it looked like the Postal Service would keep Dingell off the dais at the town meeting, held at the Marriott Eagle Crest hotel in Ypsilanti Township. According to Dingell, Postal Service officials said Wednesday they couldn’t attend her town meeting if Dingell were there, claiming her presence would violate the Hatch Act.

In a news release, Dingell said she consulted with colleagues in both parties and that none felt she was barred from such a meeting.

“The Hatch Act has nothing to do with this,” said a Dingell spokeswoman in Washington, hours before the gathering. The Hatch Act is a 1939 federal statute that makes it illegal for federal employees to engage in overt political activities.

By citing it, Postal Service officials implied that Dingell’s appearance at the town meeting was a political event. In a news release that Dingell issued Wednesday night, she denied that the meeting was in any way a political or campaign-oriented event.

Still, she offered to stay away if necessary, insisting that the Postal Service “should show up and face tough questions from the people they serve.”

By midday Thursday, the Postal Service backed down and pledged to send representatives of the nation’s mail carrier to the meeting, and notified Dingell that she was welcome to attend the event she arranged, her spokeswoman said.

Ryan Roosa, 31, said he was the vice president of an association of several hundred homes in Ypsilanti Township, and that everyone he knew had poor mail delivery.
His young children, ages 1 and 4, regularly received picture books sent by the Ann Arbor Rotary Club.

“Every time we get one, it.’s bent or broke in half,” he told Dingell and the others on the dais. Dingell said she would hold the Postal Service to its pledges to improve service.

After the meeting, Dingell stood surrounded by people still sharing delivery hassles.

She stepped away to say: "The post office and I had some very intense words in the past 24 hours. ... I am committed to seeing this through."